This invention relates to an electronic transfer of funds system and more specifically to data processing methodology and apparatus for an improved electronic funds transfer system that assures that funds to be transferred are actually present to be transferred.
One growing area of electronic funds transfer is the use of home or personal computers to pay bills. This area is often called home banking.
One problem associated with home banking is that while it is possible for the individual user, called a payor, to connect electronically with the financial institution's computer which maintains the payor's account and request that certain bills be paid, the actual payment of payor's bills by the financial institution is a manual operation, or an electronic operation which requires a large mainframe computer.
Smaller financial institutions may not be able to participate in the area of home banking due to the high capital cost of a large mainframe computer, the associated hardware and software, and the manual operations necessary to process home banking information.
The present invention allows any size institution to participate in the electronic transfer of funds or as it is more commonly known, home banking.